TORONTO – Jean-Marc Vallee’s mystical romance “Cafe de Flore” and David Cronenberg’s psychoanalysis drama “A Dangerous Method” are the top contenders for Canada’s biggest film prizes.
Vallee’s francophone feature has 13 Genie Award nominations while Cronenberg’s weighty study has 11.
The film giants will face off in the best picture and best director categories, where they also compete with Philippe Falardeau and his tender school tale “Monsieur Lazhar,” which collected nine nods.
The nominations were announced this morning by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television at simultaneous news conferences in Toronto and Montreal.
Rounding out the best picture race is the thriller “The Whistleblower” and the francophone comedy “Starbuck.” They earned six nominations apiece.
The Genie Awards will be held March 8 in Toronto and will be broadcast on CBC-TV.
The acting categories are studded with international stars.
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Notables include Michael Fassbender, Michelle Williams, Viggo Mortensen, Vanessa Paradis and Rachel Weisz.
Fassbender is in the best actor race for his turn as Carl Jung in “A Dangerous Method.” Rivals include Garret Dillahunt, who plays a disillusioned war vet in “Oliver Sherman”; Scott Speedman, as the notorious Canadian bank robber in “Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster”; Montreal’s Patrick Huard, who plays a frequent sperm donor in “Starbuck”; and Algeria’s Mohamed Fellag, who stars as a sensitive school teacher in “Monsieur Lazhar.”
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Mortensen is nominated for best supporting actor for his take on Sigmund Freud in “A Dangerous Method.” He’s up against “Friday Night Lights” star Taylor Kitsch, who plays a troubled photojournalist in “The Bang Bang Club”; Antoine Bertrand from “Starbuck”; Kevin Durand of “Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster” and the young Marin Gerrier, who charms as a jazz-obsessed Parisian boy in “Cafe de Flore.”
Meanwhile, the best actress race pits Paradis, who stars as a devoted mother in “Cafe de Flore,” against Weisz, who plays a crusading peacekeeper in “The Whistleblower” and Williams, as a young wife with a wandering eye in Sarah Polley’s “Take This Waltz.”
Catherine de Lean of “Nuit #1” and Pascale Montpetit from “The Girl in the White Coat” round out the nominees.
Notably absent is Keira Knightley of “A Dangerous Method,” who failed to score an acting nod like her two male co-stars for a risky performance that critics have singled out – for good or for bad – for its intensity.
Also missing from the nominees is writer/director Polley, whose sophomore feature “Take This Waltz” scored just two nods overall (including best makeup). Polley’s first feature, “Away From Her,” dominated the Genies in 2008 when it took seven of the top prizes. Polley also scored an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay.
This year’s Oscar hopeful is “Monsieur Lazhar,” a francophone film about an Algerian immigrant who takes over a class of Montreal elementary students reeling from the sudden death of their teacher.
It comes from the same Quebec producers as last year’s Genie darling, “Incendies.”
Other front-runners this year include “The Bang Bang Club,” which collected seven nominations, and “Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster,” which earned five nominations.
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